If you’ve got a bit of time in the build-up to your wedding day and you’re a fan of crafting, then creating your own wedding stationery is a no brainer.
Firstly, you’re likely to save yourself quite a bit of money.
Secondly, you can be sure that you’re creating something that’s completely individual to you.
Thirdly, if your bridesmaids and/or sisters/friends are likeminded, you can spend some happy winter evenings making save the date cards, wedding invitations, thank you cards, place cards and table plans.
With wedding stationery, you can make any aspect of it you want to – everything or just one item, like a table planner or the save the date cards. It looks more professional if you have some kind of a theme running through everything – even if it’s just a colour.
Here are seven of our favourite ideas to help you create your own wedding stationery
Vintage table plan
You can hire a lot of props for your wedding day, including a vintage looking birdcage, which has become a popular feature of weddings in recent years as it has a number of uses. You can use these as decorative table centres, hang in the trees outside your venue in summer or inside a marquee. You could use as a postbox for good wishes and wedding cards at the entrance to your reception but we really like the idea of using a birdcage memo board to peg table plan cards from.
Save the dates
These don’t have to be made out of paper. Have a look online or in your local craft shop for DIY kits for badges and fridge magnets and get thinking. You could even send a pen out as a save the date card or a photograph of the pair of you. Just remember to send out your save the dates in plenty of time!
Place names that double up as favours
If you’re clever, you could make your place names doubly useful. How? Well, what about finding some pretty shells and pebbles on the beach and then writing your guest’s names on them in marker pen (we’re thinking silver or gold might work well here). Then at the end of the evening they get to take them home as a memento.
A travelling pair
Did you meet your husband- to-be while travelling? Or is it something you both love to do? Have a hunt around in junk shops or charity shops for old vintage maps (the sort that fold out). When you’ve found one you like, mount it on a large board and then pin the table cards to it so that it acts as a decorative and interesting backdrop.
Chalkboards and table numbers
Chalkboards are very en vogue just at the moment. You can use them to point the way to your reception and you can buy a simple chalkboard to use instead of a printed table plan. (Or use half a dozen smaller chalkboards for each table if you prefer). Just write in your best handwriting, or ask a friend who’s a good calligrapher to do it for you. You can carry on the chalkboard theme through to your tables. Wedding Of My Dreams has some pretty blackboard buckets with a chalkboard side onto which you could write the table name or number.
Menu place mats
We have some highly creative brides-to-be reading Wedding Ideas magazine! We loved the idea from one of our readers who printed the wedding breakfast menu onto a paper place mat for each guest. It acted as a decoration in its own right (so saving money on table decorations) and was a really thoughtful touch that looked highly professional. A simple idea that’s inexpensive.
Thank you cards
Rather than have these made when you do your wedding stationery order, why not ask your wedding photographer to take a shot of you together on your big day, with a large Thank You wedding sign (this could be a chalkboard) that you’re both holding. Get some copies done, stick onto plain cards (that you can easily find online or in a craft shop) and then your guests get a memento of you both on your big day looking wonderful (and a shot of you in your wedding dress).
Nowadays, many brides and grooms ask for contributions towards their honeymoon in lieu of a wedding present. If you’ve done this and you’ve gone to a beach in paradise, then write your names in the sand along with a thank you, take a photograph and print out, then stick onto blank cards (as suggested above).
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